


Reclamation

by DuckierGalaxy, Sharkbit11



Series: The hunted fireteam [3]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2020-07-27 23:14:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 15,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20054131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuckierGalaxy/pseuds/DuckierGalaxy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharkbit11/pseuds/Sharkbit11
Summary: So I want to take a poll. If you read duckiergalaxy's story, or do because I pointed you there please say so. He needs some love over there :)





	1. Friendly sparring

The horn bellowed its tune and Natalie's heartrate climbed. She checked if the non-lethal rounds were fully loaded in her gun and set off to find her opponent. It had been a couple weeks since Natalie's last encounter with Austin, and she had been sparring with Sarah and participating in the gladiator arenas known as the crucible at Sarah's request. Surprisingly, Natalie was pretty good at it, and quickly made a name for herself. However, this week was iron banner, and Natalie refused to participate. Something about the more competitive nature drove her mad. She was snapped out of her thoughts as a grenade bounced around the corner. She quickly picked it up and threw it somewhere behind her. The explosion made her take a step forward, but she was already raising her gun at the doorway. A figure rolled into the doorway and Natalie pulled the trigger. Her gun bucked wildly in her grip as the belt was fed through. Sarah held up a arm "hit!" She yelled, laughing, then she dissapeared as she was transmatted to a different part of the arena. Natalie smiled under her helmet, sarah was being more agressive than usual. This was a test. The titan continued to sweep room after room, building after building, of this small alleyway in the city that was sectioned off for crucible matches. The tracker on Natalie's HUD flared red and she slid into cover behind a low wall. A sound of metal ringing sounded through the plaza in front of her and she peeked over her cover. A void shield nearly took Natalie's head off before she ducked back down behind her cover. Bits of concrete and brick rained down on her from where the shield hit the walls. Natalie's smile grew as she figured out Sarah's test: fighting supers without your own. Natalie hopped over the low wall and rushed sarah, her gun roaring as rounds were dumped through it. Sarah just simply did the same with her shield raised. The force of the impact with another unstoppable force jarred Natalie's teeth as she slammed into Sarah's shield, shoulder first. Sarah tried to push natalie off, but the younger titan spun around to the back of her opponent. More bullets were fired, only to be caught by a quick shield block. Sarah used her shield to bash Natalie's gun away, and the now unarmed titan began to retreat from her opponent's attacks. "Super ready!" Natalie's ghost chirped into her helmet. The guardian could only laugh as she punched her fist at Sarah's shield. A sickening crack sounded as the edge of Sarah's shield hit in between Natalie's middle and ring fingers, splitting Natalie's arm down the middle. Natalie didn't feel a thing thanks to the combination of the light, and her ghost. "Let's even the playing field!" She said happily, before wrenching the halves of her mangled arm free from around Sarah's shield, quickly letting her ghost fuse the two halves of her arm back together, and summoning the light with the same sound as Sarah's. The older titan launched forward, shield whistling as it cut through the air, only to be blocked by the same void shield, this time In Natalie's hands. In the moment before the battle continued, Sarah saw the single blue slit down the center of Natalie's helmet covered in void light and barely looking at her. Sarah smiled under her helmet as a natural thrill of fear sparked through her chest. Natalie threw Sarah's shield to the side, and spun to strike her knees. Sarah slammed her foot into the top of the shield, and went to take off Natalie's head with an overhead strike. The titan in red charged foward, taking out Sarah's legs. Natalie whirled around to block a thrown shield from her blue opponent. A moment passed as natalie studied her opponent. Sarah had gained allot of favor with the vanguard since the last time she and austin crossed paths. She had been gifted with vanguard armor for her outstanding bravery versus the forces of darkness. Her chest was covered by a giant piece of metal that was orange except for the lower corners, where it had a triangle of blue. This color pattern was carried throughout her whole armor set. Her middle had only a thin piece of kevlar, favoring movement over armor. Her legs were covered in three pieces of thick metal. One covering all of her thighs, one plate for her knees, and one giant piece serving as giant boots. Her arms were covered in the same basic three-piece format. Thick armor around her upper arm, a thick plate for her elbows, and a giant piece serving as gloves with a metal piece encompassing her lower arm her shoulders were adorned with blockey pauldrons. Her helmet had the normal smooth face, but it was more like an octagon than the normal titan helmets. Sarah took the moment of hesitation on Natalie's part to rush foward. The red titan easily deflected the blow from Sarah, and followed it with her own swipe at her opponent's middle. Massive blows were exchanged rapidly as Natalie was slowly pushed backwards. Eventually, all routes of escape were cut off and her back was pressed against a gate. She took a deep breath as she let go of the void and grasped her solar light. The blast of the activation was enough to break Sarah's combo and push her back. Natalie almost laughed as she swung her hammer. With the force of the hammer being too much to block, sarah was forced backwards and swing after swing barely missed. Sarah tried to strike Natalie with her shield, but regretted it when it was blocked by the handle of her hammer. Natalie swung the end of the hammer into the ground, catching Sarah's shield, and ripping it off her arm. Using the head of her hammer, she jumped and kicked Sarah back. Natalie landed and dropped to one knee, using her shoulder as a lever to swing the hammer. The hammer stopped dead in its tracks with a dull thud and Natalie looked up. The hammer was an inch from Sarah's body, being held up by an invisible force. "Good" the titan said "you're ready."

the gate opened to a mass of cheering civilians on either side of the path the two titans were walking on. Over top of the crowd, natalie saw the massive form of the crucible handler, Shaxx. She made a beeline for him through the crowd. On the way, her ghost transmatted her helmet off her head and she took her gauntlets off herself. When she finally got within earshot of the titan she quipped "you told me there wouldn't be any cameras." Shaxx let out a booming laugh that forced natalie to smile. "Not even I would turn away the masses from seeing two legends fight, and why would I? The lone survivor of an encounter with rogue guardians, versus a legendary titan that crushes all in her way. This is what the crucible is about! " He replied loudly. "Also, keep the armor. It suits you." Natalie smiled and thanked shaxx. She had seen the armor on a stand when she first met the crucible handler. The feet were just armored by overlapping metal plates, offering more movement. The legs had the usual three piece covering, but the knee guards were shaped to split bone when sent at an enemy. The gauntlets were a welcome deviation from the three-piece rule for normal titan armor. Only Natalie's lower arms had a plate of metal, as her pauldrons covered her upper arms. They were not for covering her face, because they extended out from her body farther, and her left one had a set of large spikes to impale enemies. Her chest had a piece of metal that left her middle protected only by kevlar, but extended down and wrapped around her sides. A giant mane of fur wrapped around the sides and back of her head. Her helmet carried the same sharp middle as the knee guard, but down the center was a glowing blue slit. The whole set was a bright red and covered with a Phoenix symbol. Shaxx clapped natalie on the back and sent her off before the crowd got to her.

later that day, Natalie and Sarah were patrolling the wall, as Sarah had guard duty. The sun was setting, casting the city and surrounding forests in a full orange glow. "If you look closely" Sarah said, cutting the peaceful silence "you can see the birds coming to their nests." Natalie strained her eyes and, sure enough, there were flocks of small black dots darting in between the distant trees. "How can you see these things?" She asked Sarah. The blue titan simply shrugged. "Its been nearly three months since I got my freedom taken away. I need some way to pass the time, so I look for different details In the same patch of woods." Natalie nodded and leaned on the railing. "But that's about to change." Sarah continued "reports have showed that Jess' armor beacon is on the reef." Natalie was surprised at this. Without her ghost, sarah only had one life. "What?" She exclaimed "Sarah, no! Without your ghost you only have one life!" Sarah just chuckled. "yeah. That's why I want you to go with me." Natalie's surprise did not diminish as she turned back to the forest below. "Why?" Sarah walked up beside her friend. "Because I want you to go. Is that wrong?" Natalie looked at the red exo beside her. "No. It's just, why dont you stay here where it's safe? There are guardians that can go without that risk." Sarah laughed coldly "Yeah, and keep me here for the rest of my life while some traitorous murderers get to roam free."Sarah made a sound like a sigh "look, I am going either way, i would rather a good friend go with me than some guardian I've never met before. We both know how that went last time." Natalie didn't have a response. Sarah was right, she didn't deserve what she got, and the people who took everything from her were going to the reef. Sarah was going to get herself killed if she went, however, so Natalie sighed and made a decision. "Fine. I'll go. But only to keep you from getting yourself killed." Sarah nodded her head "thank you, natalie." Natalie didn't say anything. She thought this was a bad idea. She looked at sarah and thought she saw a thin whisper of black smoke coming from the exo's eyes.


	2. Reconnaissance

Austin was lying on the ground, thinking. "Okay, so to lay everything out: Sarah is not being controlled, just manipulated, by something in the reef. That something is also cutting off her connection to the traveler, and because of all that, she has suddenly become some sort of unstoppable psycho murderer determined to kill me." He opened his eyes as the feminine voice of Niko chirped her response "yep. Pretty much." Austin opened his eyes and sat up to look at the ghost that was resting on his raised knee. "I don't see what it could be. I've read all of the archives Jess has on her ship, and the only thing that can do that that's not extinct is the hive, but we would at the very least know if the hive attacked the reef." Niko made a playful sound of frustration as she slid off Austin's knee to fly around his head. "So are the hive our only option?" Austin lied back down and sighed. "Let's see. There are the hive, that's a given. We could say the vex, but the fact of why they would influence only one guardian rules them out. The fallen and cabal don't have the tech to do this. Jess has told me about this new enemy called the scorn that can control hive, so that's an option." Niko cut off his rant "so that's the hive, and the scorn; but what about things that are extinct?" Austin shook his head at the ghost above it. "But why would something that's extinct be alive? And how? Through their bones?"

Austin opened his eyes to see the camp that he and Jess made. He was floating cross-legged in the air and across the fire from Jess. "Finally" she said without looking up from the coals she was stirring with her knife "you've been meditating for at least an hour." Austin slowly lowered himself to the ground. He almost unfurled his legs, but thought better of it when he felt Casper in his new favorite spot: on top of Austin's head. "Yeah" he finally replied to Jess "sometimes it takes a while." "What do you do in there?" Jess asked, finally looking up. Her orange eyes sparkling with the light of the fire. Austin didn't answer, he just stared at the flames. A few minutes passed before a small movement from Casper jogged Austin's memory. "How has the translator been coming along?" Jess sheathed her knife "good. Casper and Wilbur have deciphered enough of the fallen language to at least make sense of what they are saying." Austin nodded, and went back to looking at the fire. It had been two weeks since they had arrived on the Reef, and Jess was still not fully cooperating. However,she seemed to have taken his pep-talk to heart, as she had followed his directions, and even added some of her own: Like the fallen translator. Austin found himself using the light to absent mindedly play with the flames. "Okay" he finally said, gently taking the sleeping Casper off his head "I'm going to get some sleep."

The sun had barely made its presence known before the two guardians set up on the outskirts of a twisted shore, made of asteroids and rubble that had been tied together with hooks and wires. Austin's HUD magnified his view, while Jess was looking through the scope of a rifle. "At one five zero, behind the launcher." Dust flew up as the shot from Jess' rifle took a second to hit her mark. "Good shot." Austin said as he continued to scan the area. "Hold your fire. We have some weird fallen coming out in the open" the three vandals and one servitor were garbed in dark green colors, with helmets that had many lights like eyes. But the most prominent feature were the net of spikes that covered their backs. Even the servitor was covered in giant spines. "Oh, these are spiders' fallen. They wont shoot at us, but we cant talk with them." The warlock chuckled "Actually...." Austin's HUD zoomed out to normal and he asked "do you still have your sword?"

Walking towards the fallen was a nerve racking experience for Austin. Every time he had encountered them, they had tried to kill him. Sometimes even succeeding. However, Jess looked completely calm and collected when approaching the aliens. When the guardians were close Austin held his sword upright and put Jess' sword sideways over the hilt, making a cross. "Greetings." He said. The fallen were understandably confused, as the words that came out were from their language. The fallen began speaking, and the translation took a moment to come through; and even then, it was broken, but understandable. "Light bearer. Talk. Eliksni?" Austin nodded. "Yes. We have a translator." The fallen looked at Jess and were surprised again. "Friend. Spider's. Has returned." Since Jess also had a translator, she spoke up. "Give spider my regards when you get back, but for now we need directions." 

About two hours later, Jess and Austin were looking at an awoken watchtower in the distance. "Thank you." Jess told the fallen behind them "tell spider that Jess said you deserve a raise." With that she jumped over the edge into the twisted, strung together clump of asteroids below. Austin followed, and together they set off to running across the tangled shore of the reef. "So this spider character. Who is he?" Austin asked. Jess didn't answer for a while until she eventually confessed "an old acquaintance. I'd rather not talk about it." Austin nodded. Getting Jess angry was not a good idea. Especially here.

That night, another fire was lit, and both guardians were at their usual spots across from each other. Austin had Casper in his hands, looking out at, and perhaps past, the watchtower in the distance. "I've been there" Jess said over the cackling of the fire. Her warlock companion slowly tore his gaze away from the watchtower, to his ghost who was struggling to stay awake. "Why?" He softly asked. Jess lowered her head, unwilling to divulge the information. Austin sighed, recognizing that if he wanted answers, he would have to sort through them himself. "You've lost someone there, haven't you?" The simple act of Jess tensing at the question answered for her. "Ah. Multiple someone's. Who were they? If I had to guess one of them had to be the hunter vanguard." An untrained eye would have missed Jess' hand tighten on her knife. "You've been tense since we got here. Only relaxed around those fallen. That could be due to the hunter vanguard. Or..." Austin paused, remembering their talk on top of Nathan's ship "GLX." Jess moved faster than Austin could think. Next thing he knew she had her flaming knife not even an inch from his throat. "Don't you dare speak his name." She breathed. Austin was not surprised, it had to be a painful memory, and Austin was disgusted that he was the one to pull the trigger; but he couldn't show it. As he looked into Jess' eyes, however, he saw the tears, threatening to spill over. He definitely struck a chord, and would have to be careful. "That wasn't me. That was The other Austin." The knife inched towards his throat. "Look, we can fight over this all you want once we get back to the tower, but now I need the Jess from earth. The one that wouldn't hesitate to help and answer questions." Jess spoke through her teeth "That Jess died when you killed GLX!" Austin winced at the wording. "You've taken my mentor, my fireteam, and my home. What more do you want from me?" Austin sighed again. "I know how to clear my name, and by extension, yours. I can get you back into the Vanguard's favor." If Jess was surprised, she didn't show it. "All we need is the piece of Niko from around Sarah's neck. We can take it to the tower and show the video logs." Jess' knife slowly lowered and she stood. Without a word, she turned and began to walk out of camp. "You loved him, didn't you?" Jess stopped for a second. "I'm so sorry." Jess didn't answer as she continued walking.


	3. Home

The rifle in Nathan's hands bucked heavily as the shot rocketed out. It took a couple seconds for the shot to hit the dreg he was aiming for. Smoke from the elongated barrel obstructed the scope a bit, but that was the price he paid for near silent shots. After a few seconds of surveying he stood up and began the decent into the giant open plain. He would have to be careful; any competent fallen sniper could do the same to Nathan as he did to that dreg. He slammed shoulder first into a mountain of loose rubble and quickly climbed up. He paused at the top to quickly take in the sheer size of the awoken watchtower he was at the base of. Inside, there would be a gate that he had to get through somehow to finally get more awnsers.

the walk in was quiet. The stillness put Nathan on edge. He eventually walked up some stairs into a giant room. The path in front of him gradually widened into a massive circular gate. There was grass on either side of the path, and beyond that were slightly elevated Circles with statues on them. Nathan slowly walked up to the gate, and tried to lay a hand on it. An invisible force pushed back on his hand, preventing it from touching the gate. "Okay" nathan said. Half to himself, half to Athena "how does this thing work?" Athena appeared beside him in a soft flash of blue. Her shell looking more yellow in the light of the gate, rather than her normal green. "The awoken pride themselves on being part of the light and dark. Maybe that's how you get in?" Nathan chuckled "if that's how we get in, we are going to need another way." Suddenly, a massive screeching sounded from the center of the room. Nathan drew his hand cannon and aimed it towards the source. At the center of the room, a small black ball had formed, but quickly, it expanded to twice nathan's size and slammed down onto the ground. The darkness went away to reveal three figures standing in its place. Nathan stepped backwards, looking at the fallen captain, vex minotaur, and cabal phalanx standing before him. These were not normal enemies. They were black, except for the pure white at their feet. Nathan reached behind his back with one hand and summoned a grenade. The captain cocked his head and zipped towards him. Nathan dived to the side as a claw narrowly missed his head. Nathan rolled to his knees and fired two shots before an invisible hand knocked him clean on his back. A metal hand declared and rushed down at him. Nathan rolled out of the way as the taken minotaur fully decloaked and looked at the hunter. Nathan rolled backwards again and fired at the minotaur. The phalanx appeared in front of the minotaur and blocked the bullets with its shield. The captain teleported over the phalanx shield and threw a giant wave of shadow at Nathan. It slammed into the hunter, knocking the breath from him and causing his vision to dim and a wave of nausea to wash over him. The phalanx bashed him with the shield, causing him to hit the back wall. The phalanx slammed the end of the shield onto Nathan's leg, severing it. Nathan yelped in pain, and stared into the hole in the phalanx's shield as it glowed. A blast rocketed out of the shield and caved in Nathan's chest.

Nathan gasped awake to see athena dodging swats and gunshots from the three taken. "Okay" he said "now its personal." Nathan rushed to his feet and charged the phalanx. He held up his hand for athena as he slammed into the brute's shield. Athena dissapeared and Nathan rolled over the taken cabal. He summoned the light and felt the warmth travel to his hand. He landed and let the light burst through his body in a flash of orange. He rolled away and looked for the tell-tale shimmer of a cloaked enemy. Finding his target, he let lose a shot from his flaming hand cannon. One. The minotaur stumbled from the shot hitting its shoulder, then tipped and fell as it disintegrated. Nathan rolled again, this time jumping into the air, feeling like he was yanked up again as he used the light for another jump. He fired at the captain, who was letting lose another wave of shadow. Two. The captain screamed as his hand was severed and the light consumed its prey. Nathan landed and rushed the phalanx. The taken braces its shield on the ground, but Nathan didn't care. The flaming hunter stepped on the shield and flipped off behind his enemy. Before he touched the ground, he put both hands on his gun and ripped it into six flaming knives, held in between his fingers. He twirled in the air, flinging all of the knives at the taken. Nathan hit the ground and the phalanx was sent flying backwards towards the massive gate. Nathan looked and saw the taken was still alive, he growled and rushed it again. "Just die!" He screamed at it as he slammed into its exposed body and shoved his knife deep into it's soft skull. A deafening boom was the last thing he heard before his vision went white. 

Nathan's eyes were heavy. He couldn't open them as he laid on the ground. He tried to focus on not passing out again by feeling his surroundings. There was a slight breeze that ruffled the part of his cloak that was not under him. He moved his hands, feeling the grass under him. Something felt wrong though, his stomach churned, on the brink of nausea, and his head had a slight pressure. It vaguely reminded him of the faken he had just fought. "The taken!" He yelped as he bolted upright, hitting his unprotected head on his ghost, who was floating around him. "Ow" Athena groaned, spinning her front plates. Nathan apologised and sat up. He was back outside, on a dirt path with grass and cliffs on both sides Nathan and athena looked around to see tiny bubbles of darkness floating around, and shadow leaking from the ground to float upwards. Nathan slowly got up, his head throbbing, and turned to look at where he was. A wall. Not to far away, towered over him. He could just barely see the tops of buildings behind it; but the most prominent feature was the awoken watchtower. It was almost completely covered in the black goo that makes up the taken, with the hole at the top housing a black ball of darkness, with streams of shadow going all across the area. "The dreaming city." Nathan breathed. He was so mesmerised with the taken structure that he most didn't notice the waypoint athena set on his HUD. "An awoken life sign is that way." She said. A few minutes later, he was jumping to the ground from a cliff face. He hadn't bothered to put his helmet on before he left, so he was being extra careful. He passed into a hole in the cliff face, admiring the natural formation, when two shots slammed into the rock face beside him. He rolled behind the corner as two more shots splintered the rock. "That's the awoken!" Athena said over the sound of more gunshots. Nathan nodded "were friends!" He yelled over the last burst of gunfire. "We're here to help!" The gunshots stopped, but Nathan did hear the sound of an empty magazine clattering to the ground and a new one being placed in his opponent's gun. "Come on out" the awoken's voice seemed to flow from one word to another with a familiar accent. Nathan complied with his hands raised to his chest. A small gap sounded and the gun clattered to the floor. The hunter looked up to see Petra Venj, Queen's wrath, standing at the edge of the cliff. "Nathan?" She asked with pain in her voice. Athena appeared over his shoulder and again Petra repeated "Nathan?" This time, with an even more pain stricken voice. The spectre of Petra's past put his hands down. "Hey, Petra." He says with a sad smile "Enjoying the view, I see."


	4. Shaken

Natalie ripped the bandage off and finished wrapping the end on Sarah's arm. The exo groaned as Natalie tightened the bandage. "You know, when I agreed to come with you, I didn't plan on playing doctor with you." The duo chuckled as Natalie moved down to Sarah's leg. There was no fire in their camp, as Sarah said it could attract attention; so Natalie was bandaging Sarah by the light given to them by her ghost. The human took off Sarah's greaves and set them aside. She sighed as she saw the under armor fabric soaked in the black liquid exos had instead of blood. "You have to stop running in guns blazing" she said "you are going to get shot in a place I cant help with." Sarah chuckled lightly before groaning again as Natalie began to apply the bandage. "This is the first time I've been out of the Tower in nearly three months. Forgive me if I come across as a little excited." Sarah yelped as Natalie tightened the bandage particularly roughly. "Just stop. You are my friend and I want you to make it back home." Sarah was silent as the Natalie's ghost moved to the armor on the ground and began to repair it.

the Sun was high in the sky as the duo made it to the plains of the Reef. Large sprawling areas with no cover made it perfect for snipers. They carefully made their way down the mountain of loose rocks they were on, and into the plains below. "Wait." Sarah said after a bit of walking. Natalie kept her gun trained on the ridge overlooking their position. "Look at that." Sarah walked away from Natalie, much to the younger titan's annoyance. Natalie followed, being careful to watch the surrounding ridges for any enemies. Sarah was inspecting the body of a fallen dreg with its head severed from its body with a single clean shot. Natalie felt nauseous as Sarah looked over the mildly rotten corpse. "Its fresh. Maybe a day." She said. Natalie thrust her hand at the body "You call that fresh?" Sarah left the body and continued on mumbling something. All Natalie could make out was "Almost time."

the Guardians traveled across the Reef for about a day, every so often Sarah would drill Natalie in little sparring matches. Natalie loved them, anything to stave off the boredom of looking at the uniform brown of the plains. Finally, they came across a twisted land of grappling hooks and loose asteroids. "The Tangled Shore." Sarah said before jumping across the gap between asteroids, landing in the shore. Natalie followed suit, and looked up to see a squad of fallen. Three vandals and one servitor. They were garbed in robes of big spines covering their backs. Their helmets were made of metal with many lights that looked like just as many eyes. Their weapons were stowed, and they were walking towards them. The titans walked towards the fallen as well. When they were within earshot, the lead fallen bowed his head slightly and said something in the raspy voices that are trademark of the fallen "tecc amasik" it motioned for the guardians to follow it. Sarah scoffed and looked at Natalie "Like we are going to fall for that." And with that, she quickly unsheathed her sword and plunged it deep into the survitor's eye. The construct beeped frantically before exploding, sending pieces of it in all directions. "What the hell, Sarah!" Natalie screamed. The fallen drew their weapons and pointed them at Sarah. "They were going to help us!" Sarah chuckled at the screaming Natalie and used her sword to behead another vandal. The body took a second to drop to the ground, and in that time Sarah had already plunged her sword through the heart of another fallen, and cut the leg off the last. Natalie watched helplessly as Sarah massacred the fallen. She shrunk away from her friend when she grasped her shoulder and led her over tho the legless fallen that was trying to crawl away on the blue blood-soaked ground. Sarah put a boot on it's chest and took out a sidearm from its holster on her hip. "Look at this fallen, Natalie. It's the enemy." She gave Natalie the sidearm. "It's only interest is to kill us, not help us. It was probably leading us into a trap." She manipulated Natalie's hand to point the gun at the vandal's head. "So kill it first." Natalie shook her head slightly "They didn't attack us. They were going to help us." Sarah sighed. "This is a fallen. They don't help us they have never helped us. They are thoughtless evil beings that only wish death on humanity. So do it. Now!" Natalie had tears streaming down her face "I cant." Sarah groaned and roughly kicked the helmet off the Fallen's head. "Look at it! It's the same as all the other fallen we've fought! Just kill it!" There was silence for only a moment before Natalie slowly lowered the gun. Sarah made a sound of anger and stomped her foot into the Fallen's chest. The fallen screamed for a second before it died and went limp. Natalie looked up at Sarah to see a whisper of black smoke coming off of her head. "You're overheating." She said weakly. Sarah touched her head, and quickly ripped her foot out of the fallen, taking its side with her, and stormed off, continuing their original path.

that night Natalie couldn't sleep. Nightmares were haunting her when she slept, and memories when she was awake. She was dangling her feet over the edge of the asteroid they were on, looking into the infinite depths of space. She wondered if she could survive a fall there. It's just open space, if she had her helmet she could breathe. A small blue flash tore her away from her thoughts and distractions, and the memories of that day came back. She felt the tears return as her ghost floated beside her. They sat like that for a while. The silent understanding comforting her. Finally, her ghost spoke up quietly. "What are you thinking?" Natalie chuckled a bit, tears threatening to spill over yet again. "You already know." Her companion moved his front flippers in a motion resembling a shrug. "I've heard that talking helps people. It may help you." Natalie cracked a soft smile. Her ghost knew her thoughts; so he didn't want to listen to know what her feelings were. Instead, maybe he wanted to help her sort them. So natalie began speaking. "I dont know about all this. What is the one source of information we have about one of the most dangerous rogue guardians in city history?" Her ghost turned to look at sarah. "Yep." Natalie said, staring into the depths of space below her. "She's sleeping behind us." Natalie's ghost turned to look at her. "Well yeah. She was the only survivor of the attack." Natalie shook her head. "No, ghost. I mean for all we know she crushed her ghost herself, planted the civilian bodies, and forged documents on them." The white construct made a slow exaggerated movement as what she meant clicked in his mind. Half because what she said, and half because of the thoughts she was having. "I mean, when it comes down to it, I don't want to be stuck on the wrong side."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I want to take a poll. If you read duckiergalaxy's story, or do because I pointed you there please say so. He needs some love over there :)


	5. Tutor

The Awoken Watchtower was already reaching an unimaginable size, yet Austin and Jess were still nowhere near the base. Austin raised his auto rifle to the entrance of a cave "Clear." He said. But dispite his callout, Jess went behind him and cleared the cave again. "You do know you dont have to worry about the areas I've cleared, right?" Jess didnt say anything, her expression unreadable under her helmet. Austin sighed "look, this whole mistrust thing is getting old." Jess whirled around "well what do you expect. Me to sit beside the killer of my friend, laughing like old friends over alcohol?" Austin was silent. She roughly took off her helmet "I've held up my end of the bargain: I haven't attacked you. Just leave me alone." She went to turn around, but Austin put a light hand on her shoulder. "You've been tense ever since we got here."He said with a gentle tone. “Do you need to let off some steam?" Jess roughly shrugged off Austin's hand. "How? By target shooting?" Austin smiled as Casper got an idea. He took off his helmet also. "Why not a punching bag?" Jess' expression turned from angry to confused. "I mean, we've got your favorite one right here." Austin clarified. Jess stared at the warlock for a second, before a half-smile unwillingly crept into her face. "What are the rules?" She asked, already seeming to loosen up. "No guns." Austin replied quickly stretching his arms and legs. "I dont want us to attract attention." Jess' smile was on her face in full as she got low, one hand on her knife, and one in front if her for balance. Austin got a thrill of fear, looking at the woman that was most likely about to be the death of him numerous times over the course of their match. "This is an awful idea" Casper said in Austin's head. *Then you are an awful source of them* Austin thought back at him. His hands were open, one hand was at his chest facing down, and another was across his body to his side, facing up. "Now" he said to his temporary foe "hit me!" 

Jess shot foward at Austin, her knife shining in the sun. The warlock waited until the last second to blink slightly to the side and deflect Jess' attack downwards. Austin used the light to push one of Jess' legs to get her off balance. Jess tried to get her knife around to slash at Austin, but the warlock quickly blinked away. Turning on her heel, Jess launched her knife at the retreating Austin. He sidestepped the knife, caught it with the light, and sent it flying back at the hunter. The knife didnt even rotate as it sailed through the air, through Jess' leg, and implanted itself into the ground behind her. She looked back at her opponent only to see a hand blast her away. She hit the ground hard, but managed to roll to her feet. With a growl, she summoned the light and charged Austin. Her opponent saw her golden gun and blinked towards her, grabbing the flaming hand cannon and using the light to break her wrist. Jess was thrown foward by Austin as she felt her super slip away. She tried to catch Austin off guard by immediately lunging at him again, but she was rewarded with the handle of her own super smashing into her face. Austin pointed the gun at Jess' head. "What did I say about guns?" He said smiling. His expression was so contagious that Jess couldent help but smile herself. Austin released the grip on the gun and let it spin so that the handle was pointing at Jess. She took her golden gun and felt the super flow back through her as she caught fire again. "Now, hit me again!" Austin said with a grin.

Austin groaned as he shifted his sore muscles. The final score was Jess winning with three wins and Austin close behind with two they found a large rock during their battles, and decided to make camp. They both were sitting side by side, leaning against the rock with a fire in front of their stretched out legs. "You sore?" Jess asked "Yeah." Austin chuckled "You?" Jess nodded "You could have held back some." She said smiling. "Well I said you'd have a punching bag. I never said you wouldn't be one yourself." The duo laughed and watched their ghosts fly around the camp, doing meaningless tasks to keep themselves occupied. "How has Casper been" Jess asked after a few moments. Austin was startled by the question, but composed himself quickly He still gets nightmares sometimes. But overall he is doing good. I'm proud of him." Some more comfortable silence fell in between the pair. The ghosts continued for a while longer until Casper could not find anything more to occupy himself with, and he landed softly on top of Austin's head. Austin smiled and gently turned his head to jess. "Back on Earth, you used a fighting style that reminded me of a hunter void super." Jess looked at the warlock. The sight of a guardian with a ghost laying on his head made her chuckle a bit. "Well I can use the void a little bit, but I never could really harness it." Austin chuckled. "Well let me see if I can teach you." Jess snapped her head back at Austin. She was angry at the warlock that was trying to replace her mentor. The only people that had taught her was GLX and Cayde, the Hunter Vanguard. She never really could amount to other hunters with the void, so she only would let GLX work with her on it. However, if she could do it, then she could finally make that same mentor proud, It would be useful with where they were going, and she could also find that final part of her time with GLX that she hadent dreamed of having until now. So hesitantly, she nodded; And she saw Austin's face light up. "Okay" Austin said "Can you do this?" He lifted up a hand and a small flame flickered to life above his palm. Jess did the same and Austin turned it to a swirling ball of void, guesting for Jess to do the same. Jess concentrated and, despite her best efforts, only could conjure up a flickering whisper of purple vapor. She thanked the traveler that the fire hid her embarrassed blush. "That's okay" Austin reassured "We can work with this." And work they did. All through the night their camp would be lit up with flashes of purple light.


	6. Fragments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had to cancel last weeks chapter last minute. I just wasnt happy with the outcome and how hard it was to write. So I called it off, and completely changed it for this week. Im still not really happy with this chapter, but I hope I can get back into the swing of things next week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
> 
> -ein fauler Junge

Natalie had a dream. She was aware it was one, which was wierd for her to experience. She was walking through a field of red flowers. She looked down to see her armor gone, and civilian clothes replacing them. As she walked she could barely make out a figure. He was sitting at a desk working on something. Natalie came behind him and watched him work until he faded into nothing a few seconds later. The white haze around her stopped Natalie from seeing anything too far ahead, so she continued. A few steps later the same figure was kneeling down on the ground with a rifle raised to some unseen enemy. He was clothed in a black mist, but the one thing that Natalie could make out was ghost fragments on his knuckles, forming some twisted claws on each hand. He fired and faded again. "Who are you?" Natalie asked to no one in particular, her voice echoing around her. She continued to see the person again, this time actively fighting an unknown enemy. He would punch and stab until he faded again. The last time Natalie saw the person he was looking upward. His head suddenly turned towards her and he said "I've made a terrible mistake." Something grabbed Natalie's legs and pulled her off her feet. She was dragged with alarming speed into rosebushes, the pain of the needles cutting and ripping her skin still present when she woke up.

Natalie jolted awake, but didnt sit up. She lied there for a couple minutes, thinking. Normally a dream would fade from memory the longer she is awake, but this one was fresh on her mind no matter how long she lied there. Something about the figure in it would not let her forget. She eventually sat up and saw sarah cleaning her gun. "You're awake." Sarah said without looking up from her work. "I've noticed." Natalie replied, her tone betraying her feelings of caution towards her companion. She stood up and stretched before walking to the edge of camp and looking at the awoken watchtower that seemed to look back down at them. Sarah sighed "so my actions yesterday may have been uncalled for." Natalie spun around "uncalled for? You slaughtered a group of fallen that just wanted to help us! That was more than uncalled for!" A metallic click sounded through the camp as Sarah put the barrel of her gun back into place. "I've looked through the records of Jess." She said "after the hunter vanguard died, she went on a rampage here. And worked with a fallen called 'the spider' if those fallen got back to their boss, her and Austin would have known we were coming." Natalie threw her hands up "but we could have gone around them! That's no reason to kill them!" Sarah finished reassembling her gun, and loaded it with a pull of the bolt. "I dont need you questioning my actions. I need you to trust me." Natalie didnt awnser as Sarah stood up and started walking away. 

Natalie never got too close to Sarah.she was jumpy and she hated it. It was as if the whole of the reef was out to kill her. Every sound, rumble, and movement held her attention at once. "Are you okay?" Natalie jumped at the sound of her companion talking "you seem a little tense." Natalie's brain refused to work as she stumbled out a response "yeah. I'm, uh, fine. Of course." Sarah stared at Natalie for a few more seconds before continuing onwards. A couple hours later the duo came upon another fallen patrol. This one was comprised of only a few dregs. Despite everything Sarah said, natalie couldent bring herself to shoot them. She chose not to watch as Sarah, fortunately, killed them all rather quickly. Sarah said nothing as they continued. Natalie wondered what they were here for. What they were actually here for. Sarah was acting more and more wierd with every step. As they walked towards the watchtower Natalie thought of sarah, of what was dictating her actions, and what was waiting for them beneath the watchtower.


	7. Similarities

Jess threw her knife into the fire in frustration. Her and Austin hadent moved all day, completely focused on trying to get jess to summon the void. "Its okay." Austin said, using the light to retrieve the knife from the fire. "The void is diffrent then the other two elements. Let's try again." he handed the knife back to Jess, handle first. The hunter snatched the knife back and sat back down on the rock. Using the knife as a referance to what she wanted, she summoned the flickering ball of void light above her hand. She grasped the soft ball of cold light and concentrated. It shifted and morphed to resemble a knife until it finally flickered out and vanished, leaving her hand uncomfortably warm. "Like I've said, you can only pick up the void from a fallen hunter that had it." Austin sat beside her "then how did the first hunters get it? Try to not make a knife." Jess took a deep breath. "Okay." She said, looking at the ghosts who were floating around "but this is the last try." She summoned the ball again, this time with more difficulty she closed her eyes and grasped the ball. She felt the faint trace of void she had and tried her hardest to grasp it. It was like trying to grasp an invisible snake, she mused. She could feel the trail of it, but not the void itself. She tried her hardest to funnel it into her hand, and was surprisingly successful. Only when her hand was noticeably cold did she dare open her eyes.

in her hand was a nearly fully formed bow that was slowly growing on the ends and only rarely flickering. She gasped and her grip on the void slipped away; the bow vanished into purple smoke. She looked around and saw four wide eyes watching her expectantly. A smile graced Jess' face and She laughed a joyous laugh. Her three companions did the same "yes!" Austin exclaimed "almost!" Jess let out a happy sigh and stood up again, stretching. "You ready to go?" Austin asked "we havent gained any ground today, so we should get moving." As if on cue, a fallen grenade landed in the middle of the group of four. Austin groaned as fallen screetches sounded from all around them. Casper managed to dissapear before the grenade went off, but Wilbur was not so quick. The two guardians and the one ghost were sent flying from the blast. As soon as Austin stopped rolling, a fallen captain was on him, raising his swords to strike the killing blow. Austin raised a hand, and the captain laughed at the human's feeble attempt to defend himself. Austin's fist closed and his sword came tearing complety through the captain to imbed itself directly next to the warlock's head. The captain gasped and clutched at the hole in his chest where his heart used to be, it fell and Austin blinked to his feet, using the light to sling his sword at a dreg that was about to kill the still disoriented Jess 

The dreg fell on top of Jess, who then pushed it off her. She stood up slowly, her head pounding. Her hearing was wrong because of her helmet being off when the grenade exploded, everything sounded far away, except for one cry for help. "Jess!" She heard wilbur scream. She whipped around to see him through the mass of fallen getting slammed back down to the ground. Jess redirected a stab from a dreg, and began sprinting towards her ghost. A mass of fallen blocked her path, so she threw a knife into the dirt in the middle of the board. The knife exploded, making the fallen cover their faces, screeching. Jess vaulted into the air off of one of the dreg's back and summoned the void. Her entire body grew cold as the bow fully formed in her hands. She drew back the string and aimed at the dreg that was holding her ghost, and as she let go of the string, the final thing the dreg saw was a flash of purple. The arrow penetrated the dreg's head and embedded itself into the ground, from the fins of the arrow, void tentacles sprouted and shot out towards the large group of fallen, stabbing each through the chest and slightly lifting them off the ground. Jess killed the final fallen from the group that she landed amongst and looked to see Austin diving at her disoriented ghost. The warlock grabbed Wilbur and rolled to the outside of the cluster of enemies, his body began to get covered in lightning and Jess dove to the ground. From Austin's hand erupted a massive beam of pure arc energy that vaporized the fallen that were caught in Jess' web. Austin raked the beam over the entire area to kill all the fallen in the area. When the beam was ended, all the legs of the fallen in the area fell to the ground.

Austin got up and walked over to Jess, wilbur still in his hands. "Wilbur!" Jess yelled, running over to Austin. She took the shaken ghost from the warlock "are you okay? Are you hurt?" Casper appeared and began to scan Wilbur, looking for any internal damage. "I'm fine." He assured his guardian "just a little shaken up." He flashed a quick smile and Jess looked up at Austin who was watching, concerned; She put a hand on his shoulder, and the warlock jumped. "Now, before you do anything, I know you said never to touch him. I just thought that this was an exception." Jess chuckled "it's okay. You saved him. Thank you." A moment was spent before Austin shook off Jess' hand and glanced around. "Its not safe here, we should probably go through the night to put some distance from here." Austin blinked a few feet, picked up his sword, and began to walk ever closer towards the awoken watchtower. "Are we all good now?"casper said from above the ghost in Jess' hands "no more trying to kill him anymore?" Jess chuckled again "yeah. We're even" casper nodded and dissapeared in a flash of blue light. Wilbur finally gloated to his spot above Jess' shoulder "so where to, boss?" Jess let another smile slip "ask Austin." She said before sprinting off after her friend.


	8. A Gift from the Past.

Nathan followed Petra through the war-torn awoken city, amazed at the home he didnt remember. The wall to the dreaming city proper was to their right, and the outskirts of it was to their right. "Its amazing that I dont remember this place." Nathan thought aloud. "I'm not suprised" his guide responded "guardians dont normally remember their past. I've seen too many friends be resurrected as guardians and not be the same person as they were." It was a wierd feeling for Nathan. Petra had decades of time spent getting to know him, but he himself only had about three days worth of knowledge about her; and even that was from memories. "How many friends exactly?" Nathan asked, looking down from the city. "Only one that you knew." Nathan nodded and followed Petra from the wall to venture deeper into the outskirts of the awoken city.

"I have something for you" Petra said "a gift." Nathan made a face of confusion as he followed her to a small one-room building, Inside was a table and a box. "This was gifted to all of our best warriors. You were supposed to get these after the dreadnought assault." Her voice trailed off as she opened, and reached into the box. Petra carefully pulled out two objects, as if cradling a small animal. Nathan took them with the same care and studied them. They were shaped like a T, the tip of it looked sharp, and the edges were also made to cut. The ends of it were capped with gold, and embedded with a ruby on each side. Being a hunter, Nathan recognized the objects easily as knives, but was not able to discern how. "What are these?" He asked, amazed. Petra smiled a sad smile "they are awoken push-daggers." She took one from Nathan and grabbed it by the gold tips, and let the point stick out from in between her fingers. "You hold them like this. I know a hunter has no need for them, but I feel like you should still have them nonetheless." Nathan took the knife back, handling it with even more reverence knowing what it was. "Thank you" was all he managed to say. 

Petra gave Nathan a temporary place to stay for the night. He was sitting on his cot, gazing at the daggers in his hands. He ran his hands across the cool metal, feeling its flaws. He gripped it like Petra showed him and jabbed at the air a couple times. It didnt feel right. Nathan sighed and flipped the daggers over in his hand. He noticed a tiny flat surface on this side that he had missed before. Looking at it, he had an idea. He placed one of the knives on the back of his gloved hand, just behind the knuckles. The point was a good to inches or so in front of his fist. He rolled his hand around, using the other one to hold the knife in place. Satisfied, he smiled and quietly called for athena to help him as he walked out of his room.

The next morning Nathan felt sick. His head was spinning and a large wave of nausea washed over him. It faded after a few moments, and Nathan carefully got to his feet. He stepped outside to see none of the taken corruption that was present when he arrived. The air was unplagued with the darkness and the watchtower was completely clean, void of blights and the darkness taking over the pinnacle of it. A couple minutes later he had arrived next to petra, as per her request. "How are you today?" She asked with a sly smile. Nathan shook his head, trying to shake off the dizziness he had. "What happened last night? I feel like someone knocked me out" Petra's smile dipped and looked at the awoken watchtower. "It is the curse of the dreaming city." Nathan pretended to understand as Petra continued "one of our corsairs has gotten herself into quite the predicament again. I've sent the data to your ghost, and another guardian is on her way as well." Athena appeared and marked the location on Nathan's HUD. Nathan was about to leave when petra stopped him "that's an interesting use of the daggers." She said. Nathan had carefully welded the daggers to the back of his gauntlets with the welder he transmatted down from his ship. He needed that sense of familiarity he got from welding. "Yeah, I found a use for them by welding them to my gloves. I didnt do anything offensive did I?" Petra chuckled and replied quickly "no, no. We let our corsairs do anything they wish with the daggers." Nathan nodded and sprinted off towards the waypoint.

Nathan's HUD pointed him towards a cave and dissapeared when he got close. Raising his hand cannon, he entered it. Inside, he found an awoken corsair sitting against a wall, blood covering her clothes "ah, there you are." She said “You're early, the taken shouldn't have gotten far with the artifacts this time." Nathan held up his hands "okay slow down." He said "let's just get you out of here first." The corsair chuckled then waved him away "I'm always fine. Just get the artifacts, they are important, and I wouldn't want them to get lost." Nathan knew better then to argue, so he let the corsair give Athena the location of the target, and he sprinted off to find it. A few minutes of running later, he spotted a cluster of taken in a raised area that looked like a courtyard. It had spots of grass in places, and short flights of stairs in others. Nathan couldn't see how many there were, but he did see a rocky overhang where he could get a better view. Nathan carefully moved around the mass of taken and to the bottom of the dock wall. Getting a hand and foothold, he began climbing. The rock wall was steep, so more than once he had to rely on using the light to jump in the air to gain ground, or to keep from falling all the way down, much to his displeasure. When Nathan got up to the overhang, he pulled himself up and over, and rested for a couple moments. When his heart slowed a bit, he crawled to the edge and looked at the mass of writhing taken. He saw one centurion and one wizard, neither of which was good. The wizard could summon thrall at will, so Nathan would have to fight more then their current numbers. The two shielded taken were surrounded by at least three taken vandals and some psions. Nathan groaned, psions could split into multiple copies of themselves, so those took priority. Looking at his options, he saw that trying to pick them off from his perch would give them too much time to let the psions split, so that couldn't work. His hand cannon would not be effective at this range, so he would have to get into the thick of the fight. Running through his options, he devised a plan. He stood up on his perch and summoned the arc light. The energy forced his hands in front of him to grab a unseen object and held him there for a moment. With his usual flair, Nathan ripped one hand down, causing the invisible staff to spin over his hand, and after one rotation he grabbed the staff and let the top of it hit the back of his shoulder as the arc light burst through his skin. Nathan jumped off his perch and raised his arcstaff above his head, leating out the final breath of calm before the battle.

Nathan raises the staff over his head while he was midair and let the light carry him, soaring at his targets. He landed and slammed the staff into the ground, creating an explosion of arc light. A couple of the taken desintegrated right there, but most of them just were blown backwards a couple feet. Nathan crouched a little and waited for the taken to make a move. One of the vandals screeched and charged him, but Nathan simply blocked the blow with his staff, shoved the vandal away, and stabbed it in the stomach with the blade of his staff.Nathan heaved the staff upwards and felt the resistance stop, he then twirled the other end to catch the taken in between its legs. As the two halves of the taken fell to the ground and dissapeared. The taken squad all fired their weapons at Nathan, who just skillfully flipped over the bolts of energy. Nathan tried to strike the taken centurion, But its shield blocked the staff. Nathan felt his grip on the light, so he slammed his staff into the centurion's stomach. The taken keeled over, and Nathan used one of his extra jumps to vault off of the centurion, twist in the air, and launch his staff at the wizard like a javelin. The staff hit its mark, and Nathan landed with the daggers on his hands embedded in the heads of two taken psions. He slowly stood up and took a ready stance with the daggers. The centurion was the first to attack, and Nathan stabbed it in the arm with his daggers, and ripped it out through his arm, splitting it in half. Nathan stabbed at the centurion's side, and the shield broke. He slashed the centurion across its chest and, I Using the same hand, sunk the dagger into its throat. The taken fell, and Nathan noticed the mass of taken psions around him. The psions were splitting and surrounded completely. There was no escape, so all Nathan could do was fight. He took his knife out of it's sheath, and readied his daggers. He was about to get back into the fight when his vision was obscured by a flash of orange light. He blinked rapidly to see his body covered in a gentle orange glow. He saw that he was standing in a circle of fire, in the center of which was a flaming sword embedded into the ground. The next thing he saw was a warlock with purple and pink armor cutting through the army of psions. She, as it was a she based on her grunts, had a sword with a purple gem in the middle of the blade, and she used it to chop off a psion's hand, then behead it. Her movements were more akin to a choreographed dance than a fight to the death. Only a few psions were left when she raked her sword through the air and a void wave came out and exploded on contact with the last taken. The warlock walked over to Nathan and tossed an object at him. The warlock had on a dark purple jacket, with a bag slung over her right shoulder and resting on the opposite hip. Her helmet was pink with some purple on it, there was a big black window on it, presumably to see out of. "Would I be correct in guessing that you are the backup Petra mentioned?" The warlock nodded and drew a pulse rifle. The casing of the gun was a yellowish white, almost like bone, while the inside was a bluish black, and seemed to swirl and move on it's own. "The name's Moxi. We've got a couple more artifacts to recover. We can exchange pleasantries on the way." Moxi then began walking back towards the cave where the corsair was. Nathan smiled under his helmet, whoever this guardian was, he somehow felt they would get along just fine.


	9. Mind games

Sarah shivered as she felt the gaze on her again. It was harder than before, more expectant, impatient, hungry. "Not now, Niko" Sarah whispered under her breath. She felt the gaze harden more, if that was even possible, and she quickly turned to Natalie and impatiently asked "Let's go! they havent moved all day. What makes you think they will now." The duo were peeking over a ridge at their targets, their helmets beside them. Jess and Austin hadn't moved for the whole day, and now they were just attacked by a massive squad of fallen. "Because they are not idiots. If they have been found by the fallen, the noise alone should be reason to suspect that we would be here too." Sarah made a sound of frustration as the gaze bored into her back. Just then, Austin blinked towards the looming watchtower, and a couple seconds later Jess followed. Sarah could feel the gaze taking hold of her and finally, she fought back.

Natalie rose to her knees and stretched her aching back, feeling the tension desolve. She looked towards Sarah, who hadn't moved an inch. She surveyed the expense of brownish-grey sand "let's go, we dont want to lose them, do we?" Another look towards Sarah was not met with reassurance as still, the exo hadn't moved, but was shaking. "Sarah." Natalie said, concerned "it's okay, we just need a more secure place to confront them." She waited a few more seconds as Sarah continued shaking, and upon closer inspection, found the black smoke covering, and escaping from her eyes. Natalie reached out a hand to touch her companion, but as soon as her hand made contact Sarah jerked to her feet, yelling "No! I cannot do that, she is my friend!" Natalie backed up a few feet while Sarah continued with her one sided argument, the black smoke now pouring from her eyes. Suddenly, all of her movement stopped, and she slowly looked at the younger titan. Natalie barely had time to block a punch before they both fell down the ridge into the valley below

Natalie got up and quickly located Sarah. The titan was scrambling to her feet, grabbing her auto-rifle off her back, the bayonet gleaming in the sunlight. Natalie growled, there was no cover in the valley, so Natalie summoned the void. Not to hurt her companion, however, but to defend herself, and maybe even disarm Sarah. Natalie got her void shield up just in time to block a magazine of bullets from Sarah. Natalie dashed foward and swung her shield at Sarah's rifle, intending to knock it away, however her plan failed when she felt bullets tearing through her legs. She kneeled down, letting the shield cover her whole body. Upon inspection of her legs, she found that nothing too important was hit, like a tendon or artery, but blood was rushing out. Her ghost would need time to fix it, time that she didnt have. When a break in the constant fire Sarah was dishing out finally showed itself, Natalie grabbed her shield by the edges and brought it over her head. Sarah finished reloading her rifle, and Natalie funneled all her void light into her shield and pulled her arms down, breaking the shield and causing a giant bubble of void light to cover her.

Sarah lowered her gun, and walked up to the bubble of swirling void. She tried to push her way into the bubble, but Natalie simply pushed her out again. "Sarah, what is wrong with you? Is this another one of your tests?" Sarah did nothing but stare at her from the other side if the bubble. "Sarah, come on! This isnt like you, cut it out." When sarah replied, it sounded as if many voices were speaking at the same time, with Sarah's voice just barely winning out. "Oh, isnt it?" She said with a smile. Natalie stepped back, shocked. "Who are you?" Sarah gripped her gun tighter, her smile never wavering. "I am the one who helps this guardian." Natalie was skeptical that this thing, whatever it was, would help Sarah; so she gathered herself, and said firmly "Leave her.” Sarah's smile dipped a bit, before returning, somehow wider. "As you wish." Sarah slowly started to aim her gun towards her own head before Natalie ran to the edge of the bubble and yelled "No! You will not harm her in any way!" Sarah lowered the gun again. "Oh? Bold now, are we? Who said that you can tell me what I can and can not do?" Natalie thought about her words carefully, any slip of words can harm herself, and possibly Sarah. "Because I speak for her, since she can't." She said, gesturing towards Sarah "I want you to at least release Sarah, if you cant leave her." The void bubble dissapeared and Sarah's smile returned, and Natalie stepped backwards. "How about a deal?" Sarah asked "If you beat this one's 'test', then she will return." Natalie was about to ask what would happen if she didnt pass when Sarah lunged foward

Natalie deflected a punch from Sarah towards the ground. She twisted past another, and separated from Sarah. The exo raised her gun, and Natalie dodged past a stream of tracer fire. Making a X with her gauntlets, she deflected a stab from Sarah's bayonet, and managed to disarm her. Sarah tried to pull out a sidearm, but Natalie cracked off two accurate shotseith Sarah's rifle that made the pistol jump out of Sarah's hands. The titans circled around each other, as Natalie placed Sarah's rifle on her back. The blue titan reached behind her and pulled out a two handed sword. Natalie cursed, and ducked a swipe aimed at her head. The bayonet on Sarah's rifle couldent hope to block the swings that Sarah was making. Taking a gamble on a moment to look around, she saw Sarah's pistol. A plan formed in her head, and she waited for the right moment. Sarah swung her sword in an overhead arc, which Natalie dodged, and embedded it into the ground. Natalie winced as she punched Sarah's arm and felt it snap under the weight of the blow. Grabbing her opponent's other arm, she tossed her to the ground. Natalie sprinted over to the pistol and scooped it off the ground. She prayed her quick calculations were correct, and rushed Sarah, who was getting up. Natalie held down the trigger, and the pistol bucked in her hand, its automatic fire ringing through the valley. Natalie was relieved when, as she hoped, the pistol was not strong enough to pierce completely through Sarah's chest piece, but only made her step back. Natalie took the rifle off her back, and picked up the sword from the ground. Using the bayonet to pierce one of Sarah's hands and pin it to the ground, Natalie spun with the sword and started to bring it down towards Sarah's chest. Natalie saw Sarah blink rapidly and with confusion and fear in her now clear voice ask "Natalie?" The younger titan was not able to stop the sword before it hit its mark.


	10. My Only Anchor

I woke up that night. Not in the normal panicked rush that normally came with my usual nightmares. this one was a slow awakening, filled with pure hatred. I flew up someoff the log that I was resting on, hoping to shake off the sleep that still had its grip on me. It didnt help much though. I looked around the camp. I saw Austin and Jess sleeping soundly. They deserved it; The plan was to make camp the same night that Jess finally made her connection to the void, but we all heard gunshots and light being summoned from somewhere way too close. We all decided to keep walking through the night and the rest of the day. They were exhausted. I didn't need to be linked with either of them to see that. Looking through the camp, however, I noticed who the hatred was turned towards. It wasnt towards Jess, or Wilbur. They were the nicest guardian and ghost I met, they were only scared, and skeptical. It wasnt towards Austin. My Austin, My guardian. My hero. This wasnt the hare I felt towards him in Sarah's room, this was something natural. This wasnt even directed towards Sarah. No, this hate was directed at no one, but myself. I looked at the fire in the middle of camp, and a little voice in the back of my head made its presence known. _just fly foward. Let the heat of the flames embrace you. What would change if you weren't here? You're nothing but a burden, Austin can do everything you can, and do it better. He dosent need you._ the more I thought, the more sense the voice began to make. Austin could heal himself of all injuries instantly, I've seen him do it once or twice in emergencies. He could survey the entire battlefield without input from me. He could even do the most important thing: bring himself back from death. What did he need me for? I flew closer to the fire, the flames now seeming to reach out to me, trying to bring me closer. I almost let them take me until I heard a quiet voice behind me "Casper?" It was Austin. I didnt want to look at him, but I did anyway. "What are you doing?" He asked with concern. I didn't want to tell him what was going through my mind, not now. "I dont know. Nothing." I managed to say. "Was it another nightmare?" He reached out a hand and I recoiled from it. Why did I do that? I never do that. Finally working up the courage to look him in the eyes, I saw that he knew what I was doing. "Casper?" He said again. I turned to the fire again, watching it reach out, trying to grasp anything it could in order to turn it into pure energy. I heard Austin moving around behind me, probably to get to a better position to snatch me up if I tried anything. "Would anything change?" I asked "if I weren't here, I mean." Finally putting into words exactly what I was thinking. The words hung heavily in the air for a few seconds as the thoughts continued their assault. _ he dosent care about you. You are useless to him. Just say what he wants and slip away. _ I couldent get that voice to shut up, so I was thankful when austin drowned it out "yeah. It would all change." I wanted to believe him, to run into his arms, where I was safe, but I couldn't. "How? You don't need me. You can heal, fight. Hell, you can even revive yourself without me." I heard him moving more, this time more quietly, like he didnt want to disturb anything. Austin needed to find any objection he had to what I was saying. It was all true, and he knew it. "Well look at what happened to Sarah. She went crazy when she lost Niko." I turned to look at Austin. As i suspected, he was sitting with his feet under him, ready to move anywhere if needed. If I could cry, I would have been by now. "She was linked with Niko, and I cant even do that right." I was torn between to embraces: the one that could take the pain away, that I could confide in and always be safe, the one that could melt away my insecurities, fears, and doubts. Then there's Austin's. "Say one thing you can't do that I can." I challenged. I needed only one thing, anything that I hadent failed at. One thing I had to live for. Austin's kind eyes bore into me, tears barely visible. "That's not as tough a question as you think." he finally said. I was taken by surprise by this. Curious, I asked quietly "Then what's the awnser?" Austin smiled and spoke slowly, and clearly. "If I didnt need you, then why did I rescue you from Sarah? If I didnt need you, then why do I protect you from everything? If I don't need you, then why will I stay up with you all night to keep you with me? You make me laugh, quiet me down, scare me to death, keep me consoled, keep me focused, and make me distracted." He slid off the log to squat in the dirt. His hand reached out to me again, but this time hovering a few inches away. "You, Casper" he continued, completely drowning out my thoughts "are my one Anchor keeping me sane. You, are my ghost." His tears started falling and I saw the reflection of what he did in his eyes: a small, scared ghost too close to the fire, ready to jump. "And I would tear down the heavens itself for you." I looked at Austin's hand. The same one that had ended so many lives was uncovered, shining in the light of the fire. I had never seen it without the gloves on. The hand that was always so gentle when holding me. I touched it for the first time. The soft skin was cooler than the fire, but just as warm in a diffrent way. It was alive, feeling. Caring. Touching the hand, I felt the truth behind what Austin said, he would tear down the heavens, but he would do it gently as to protect me, always. He pulled me to his chest and I felt him breathe a sigh of relief. Looking to the side, I saw the source of the second set of movement I heard. Jess and Wilbur were watching, concerned. I was a little bit embarassed by the knowledge of them seeing me at my worst, but it would have to be solved another day. For now I was content to sit here and be hugged and rocked by my Austin, and be protected from the world.____


	11. Practicing First Aid

The first aid was a pain this time. Natalie's legs were almost mincemeat due to the sheer amount of bullets Sarah's guns fired. She was suprised she could even walk, let alone fight. Her ghost was flying around her legs while she took care of the wounds she got from stray bullets. When the last bullet hole was sutured shut, Natalie sat back and tried not to touch her legs as the itchy feeling of her ghost working slowly worked it's way down her legs. When her ghost finished, she let out a relieved sigh as the pain vanished. Her ghost flew around her, finishing off the smaller wounds. Natalie then walked over to Sarah, who was slumped against a rock. After their fight, sarah managed to limp her way over to it before losing conciousness. The Titan kneeled in front of the other. Her arm was bent at an angle that made Natalie cringe every time she looked at it. Her opposite hand had a hole in it from her own gun's bayonet. However, the wound that Natalie was looking at the most, was the massive gash that ran from Sarah's left shoulder to her right hip. The blow almost completely severed her arm, and tore through her chest piece. Looking into the wound, Natalie could barely see the metal ribcage of the skeleton that was the Exo's frame, occasionally, blue sparks would pulse out of the wound. Natalie took Sarah's hand, and examined the hole in it. Not too bad, except the fact that the fingers couldent move independently since the bayonet almost sliced the hand in half. Next was the arm. It was probably the last thing that Natalie should be concerned about, as it had no critical damage other then the fact that Sarah could touch that elbow with the same hand. Finally, she came to the final wound. She took a deep breath and mumbled. "I really dont want to do this." Half to herself and half to her ghost.

With a shuddering breath, she carefully took off Sarah's chestpiece and pulled the wound slightly open more to see the exact depth it was. A hand suddenly flew up and grabbed her wrist and Sarah yelped loudly in pain. "Sorry." Natalie said, and pulled her hands off the wound. Sarah griped Natalie's hand tighter and spoke softly in between breaths "how bad is it?" Her voice sounded garbled, like an old radio struggling for a connection. Natalie shook her head "not good. You're stable, but unless we can close up your chest, it is going to get much worse." Sarah weakly nodded and let go of Natalie's hand, letting her work. "Okay" Natalie said, organising her thoughts "first thing's first." Natalie summoned her ghost and worked to try to push the two sides of the cut closer together. Her ghost mended what he could, he loosely pulled the wound together to where it was now just a deep cut rather then a life-threatening gash. Sarah was whimpering at the pain the whole time, but not once did she say to stop. After a little bit, Natalie again pulled at the cut to peek inside. Based on her guesses, her ghost could only heal it to the point where her frame wasnt visible anymore, but he successfully closed any veins that were sliced open by the blade. Natalie sighed and leaned backwards, her hands stained with the liquid exos used as blood. "I think you're gonna be okay." She said. Sarah only weakly nodded.

Sarah passed out a few moments after that, and since then, Natalie had been picking at the fire, keeping it alive. Her ghost was keeping an eye on sarah, flying to the campfire every so often. During one of his trips to the fire, Natalie chuckled "it seems all I have done today is keep things alive." Her ghost chuckled too. The fire crackled in front of them for a moment before Natalie's ghost began to go back to Sarah. Natalie stopped him before he went to far "we need to give you a name." She said. Her ghost nodded slightly before returning to Sarah. Natalie turned back to stoke the fire before she heard her ghost call to her "uh, Natalie!" The titan turned to look at her ghost to find that Sarah was gone. She stood up and looked around the camp to see Sarah slowly limping towards the fire. Natalie quickly made her way over to the exo and helped her sit down. "You're not supposed to be walking, missy" Natalie scolded. Sarah chucked softly and winced as pain flowed through her. Natalie shifted to get a better look at Sarah's chest, and luckily, nothing was out of place. She looked down at the Exo's broken arm and sighed, knowing she had more work to do. "What are we gonna do about that arm?" She asked. Sarah looked at her limp arm "cant your ghost heal it?" Natalie shook her head "No. Not fully. He may be able to get it back into place though." Sarah Nodded again and lifted her arm to her friend. Natalie took the arm and firmly put it back into place with a sickening crunch. Sarah yelped in pain as Natalie's ghost went to work.


	12. Familiar

Nathan gently tugged on the knives strapped to his wrists. He and moxi had tracked the last artifact to a garden on top of a cliff face, there was mostly grass on the raised areas beside the path. Around the center of the garden, there was a squad of taken. From the guardians' spot behind some stairs, looking over the top, the exact number was unclear. "Do you have any smoke bombs?" Moxi asked, startiling Nathan due to the sudden break in the silence. Without saying anything, Nathan reached into one of his pouches on his legs and pulled out a circular object. Pressing a button on the side, he handed it to Moxi. The warlock nodded and got up just as it detonated, leaving only smoke in the place where she used to be. Looking down at his hands, Nathan notices that he was affected by the smoke too, as his body was not where it used to be. He took the opportunity and quickly moved behind a raised garden plot before he became visible again. He always thanked the traveler that his helmet's yellow eyes didnt show when he was invisible. He took his hand cannon out of its holster and flipped out the cylinder to check the ammo. "Athena, put Moxi on my HUD." He said. Looking at the wall he was behind, he saw the outline of a kneeling figure appear. Taking a shuddering breath, he flipped his hand cannon closed. He hated the dread before a battle, it was the thing that killed him more than bullets. He took another look at Moxi, a familiar feeling coming over him as she drew her rifle. Nathan took a deep breath and only released it once he took his first shot. Moxi killed her first taken at the same time Nathan killed his. Nathan flipped over his cover to smack a taken psion with the grip of his hand cannon, and he heard Moxi's pulse rifle ring out across the garden. The warlock rushed a centurion and ducked the punch the enemy threw. Slipping past a second one, she pushed it backwards with a blast of light. Nathan chucked a knife over before focusing on his new enemy: a taken knight that roared a challenge with flames spewing out of its eye. Nathan rolled foward and drew his sword in his off hand. He fired two shots and each hit their mark on the knights left shoulder. Nathan slid around his opponent's right side and used his sword to slice one of the knights legs. He fired a couple rounds at the other leg, and the knight dropped to its knees. Nathan holstered his gun and switched his sword to his other hand. He flipped over the knight, stabbing his sword into his enemy's stomach, and ripping it up through the top of his head when he landed. Using his momentum, he sliced his sword through the knights neck, decapitating it. The head split in two and fell of the knights shoulders before dissapearing. A couple seconds later its body split in the same way before following suit. Nathan looked at Moxi's progress and saw she was defending against two taken minotaurs. She ducked a punch from one, then used her sword to deflect the other's blow into the arm of the first. Nathan rushed to help and launched his sword at one of the minotaurs. The sword stuck, blade first, into the body of one of the taken, and Moxi glanced at Nathan. The hunter instinctively nodded at his ally without knowing why, and moxi did as well. When Nathan got close, moxi tossed her sword into the air and ducked. The hunter jumped and angled himself sideways in the air. He caught the sword in a reverse grip and brought it down at the taken. The sword found its mark and the chassis of the minotaur was nearly severed. The hunter ripped the sword out and swung it at the air. A purple wave of energy erupted from the blade, and pierced the minotaur. Nathan punched the minotaur and stabbed it with his dagger. He pulled the top half off its legs and the taken dissapeared. Nathan looked over at moxi and saw her take a object from the minotaur before ripping Nathan's sword out of its face. The two guardians walked up to each other and traded swords back. "So..." Moxi started. "So." Nathan echoed. The warlock gave the object to Nathan "what did you say your name was again?"


	13. Turnkey

Jess was following behind Austin. He was chatting to casper, who was abnormally perky. The ghost was chatting up a storm and would fly around the duo, sometimes even stopping to talk to Jess before going back to Austin or continuing his laps. Jess found Casper's constant smile to be contagious, as her cheeks were sore from sharing in his joy. The duo were walking in a old battleground. Fallen bodies were strewn everywhere, and craters were commonplace; but that did not bring down Casper, or even Austin for that matter. They both were still talking and laughing with each other just as much as they did when they broke camp last night. They came upon the wreckage of a fallen Walker. It had 6 legs and the body resembled a spider, the turret was feet away, buried in the dirt. Jess knew where to go, and she motioned for Austin to follow. They all did and followed the hunter through the war-torn area. Austin looked up as they finally reached the watchtower. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

he opened his eyes to see everything around him paused. The sky and area beyond the watchtower and courtyard was replaced with the same swirling yellows and whites. Pebbles that were previously falling hung in the air as if they were floating. Jess was stopped mid stride, and casper was frozen with his back plates misaligned with his front, as he was spinning them when he froze. Austin smiled as he spotted the Black form of Niko looking at Jess, eye level with her. "She's grown." She said quietly "unless you raised her, she cant have grown that much." Austin teased. The black ghost looked at Austin and smiled "well" she said "you're here." Austin nodded and looked back up at the watchtower "we're here." He echoed. His voice taking a much more dreadful tone then the ghost's. "Do you know anything about what we are getting into? I dont want to be unprepared." Niko shook her head "we honestly dont know. You're gonna have to find out for yourself." Austin nodded and was about to leave when he noticed Niko swaying awkwardly. "I'm not going to see you again. Am i?" Niko smiled and answered "not like this. This is my last time being independent." Austin lowered his head and Niko flew towards him "hey. It's okay. I'm excited! I get to see the traveler." Austin slowly nodded "I'm just sorry it had to end like this." Niko flew over and touched Austin's head. "It was always going to. It was just a matter of time." She flew away and perked up again "now if you'll excuse me, I'll go ahead a bit. Theres someone I need to visit." Her expression softened "be careful, my friend." Austined opened his eyes yet again, the image of Niko in front of the watchtower burned in his memory. As he looked down he saw Casper and Jess looking at him expectantly. Another deep breath was taken by the warlock and he blinked past the threshold to catch up with his friends.

The walk into the watchtower was eerily quiet. The walls were covered in damage and blights from previous battles, and there were bodies of fallen strewn about. Austin noticed that these bodies matched the fallen outside, and the ones that escorted them through an area of the reef. Coming out to a main room, the most obvious feature about the room was the big circular portal in the back of the room. Looking around, Austin found signs of a fight. Throwing knives were embedded in the ground, as well as bullet holes everywhere. Against a wall, Jess found a substance that Wilbur identified as blood. "What happened here?" She mumbled to herself. She walked to the portal in the back of the room and motioned for Austin to follow. Th warlock obeyed and the duo stood in front of the portal as a small statue materialized in Jess' hands. She raised the statue up to the portal, and it reacted. A glow reached out to engulf the guardians, and Their vision was covered by a blinding white light.

Ausin hit the ground and stumbled foward onto his hands and knees. When his vision returned, he saw that he had fallen into a small puddle of black goo. The puddle wasnt very deep, but it was big, with a trail of it in the shape of footprints continuing foward. Jess appeared out of nowhere and helped Austin to his feet. "You'll get used to that. Come on, theres someone we have to find." Following the footprints, Austin saw some more of the goo scattered around in the same puddles as he had fallen in, as well as the bodies of grotesque, deformed fallen. "Where are we going?" Casper asked, appearing beside Austin. Jess turned to see casper and quickly made a motion to hit him. Casper vanished just as quickly, and Austin took a couple steps backwards. "Not here, casper." Jess said. She quickly put on a reassuring smile before adding "I'll tell you when it's safe. But now we have to visit someone." Jess spun on her heel and started walking, her hand cannon drawn. Austin rolled his eyes and followed, adjusting his sword on his back to be easier to reach.


	14. Authors note (sorry)

I am going to be taking a 1-2 week break. I need to organize my thoughts for the upcoming chapters and make them better. I know, this is a crappy way to break the news, by putting it in a chapter's content. But I'll be back to writing soon :) the next chapter will replace this message when I put it up, so keep an eye out for that.


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